"What new wonder is this?" he would ask, with something akin1 to awe2 in his voice; but we must needs grope this way and that to feel out the answer with our finger-tips.
When the answer was found, the mystery of the lost trail was solved most simply. As we made out, we were in a deep crevice3 cut crosswise by the stream which, issuing from a yawning cavern4 in the farther wall, was quickly engulfed5 again by that lower archway we had just traversed. In some upheaval6 of the earthquake age a huge slice of the mountain's face had split off and settled away from the parent cliff to leave a deep cleft7 open to the sky. One end of this crevice chasm—that toward the upland valley—was choked and filled by the debris8 of later landslides9; but the lower end was open.
Through this lower end, as we made no doubt, the powder train had come, turning from the Indian path in the gorge10 up the bed of the barrier stream, turning again at the outer cavern mouth to squeeze in single file between the thickly matted undergrowth and the cliff's face, and so to pass around the split-off mass and come into the crevice rift11.
How the sharp eyes of the old hunter, and those of the Catawba as well, had missed the finding of this squeezing place where the cavalcade12 had left the stream-bed, we could never guess; but on the chance that we might yet need to know all the crooks13 and turnings of this outlet14, we felt our way quite around the masking cliff and down to the stream's edge in the gorge.
That done we were ready for a farther advance, and clambering back into the crevice we once more took the stream for our guide and were presently deep in the natural tunnel piercing the mountain proper. This extension of the subterranean15 waterway proved to be a noble cavern, wide and high enough to pass a loaded wain, as we determined16 by tossing pebbles17 against the arching roof. None the less, 'twas full of crooks and windings19; and in the sharpest elbow of them all, where we were like to lose our way by blundering into one of the many branching side passages, Richard stopped me with a hand thrust back.
"Softly!" he cautioned; "here are their vedettes!"
Just beyond the crooking20 elbow the dull red glow from a tiny fire gone to coals showed us two Indian sentries21 set to keep the pass. Dick drew his claymore, but he was chilling again and the hand that grasped the great blade was shaking as with a palsy. Yet he would mutter, as the teeth-chattering suffered him:
"What say you, Jack22? Shall we rush them? There's naught23 else for it." And then, with a gritting24 oath: "Oh, damn this cursed chilling!"
I whispered back that we would wait till he was better fit. He was loath25 to admit the necessity, but, as it chanced, the momentary26 delay saved our lives in that strait. While we paused, hugging the shadows in the crooking elbow, the gloomy depths beyond the sentries were suddenly starred with flaring27 flambeaux lighting28 the way for a hasting rabble29 of savages30; and had we been entangled31 in the struggle with the two sentinels we should have been taken red-handed.
As it was, we had to make the quickest play to save ourselves. In the same breath we both remembered the narrow side passage just behind in which we were nigh to losing our way, and into this we plunged32, reckless of possible pitfalls33. We were no more than safely out of the main corridor when the runners, some score of them, as we guessed, trooped past our covert34 in full cry, leaving us half smothered35 in the smoky trail of their pitch-pine flambeaux.
"Now what a-devil has set this hornet's nest of theirs abuzz so suddenly?" I whispered, when the smoke-choke gave us liberty to speak without coughing to betray ourselves.
"Our pony-riding Tuckaseges, doubtless," was Richard's ready answer. "By all the chances, they should have met the Great Bear and his peace-offering out yonder on the trace—which same they did not. So when they bring this tale to camp there is the devil to pay and no pitch hot. God help our tough old Ephraim and the Catawba if these bloodhounds win out in time to overtake them!"
"Aye," said I; and then we crept out of our dodge-hole and made ready to go about our business with the sentries.
But when we came to peer again around the crooking elbow it would seem that the hurrying search party had fought our battle for us. The watch-fire was there to light a little circle in the gloom, but the watchers were gone. We chanced a guess that they had joined the hue36 and cry, and so we pressed forward, past the handful of embers and into the pit-black depths beyond.
Twenty paces farther on it came to playing blind man's buff with the rocky walls again, and measured by the trippings and stumblings 'twas a long Sabbath day's journey to that final turn in the great earth-burrow whence we could see the glimmering37 of the enemy's camp-fires in the sunken valley.
"Now God be praised!" quoth Richard most fervently38. "Another hour in this cursed kennel39 with the fever on me and I should be a yammering loose-wit." And I, too, was glad enough to see the stars again, and to be at large beneath them.
Emerging from the subterranean way, we held to the camp side of the stream, making an ample circuit to the left to come down upon the enemy's position from the wooded slope behind the encampment. We met no let or hindrance40 in this approach. Secure in their stronghold, the Indians had no patrols out; and as for the Englishmen, every mother's son of them, it seemed, was basking41 in the light of a great fire built before the pine-bough shelters.
Favored by a dense42 thicketing of laurel we made a near-hand reconnaissance of the little wigwam which held our dear lady. As I have said, this was pitched in the thinning of the forest which covered the steep slope behind the encampment, and so was the farthest removed from the stream, and from the Indian lodges43 disposed in a half-moon at the water's edge. Here all was quiet as the grave, and the clamor of the Indian camp came softened44 by the distance to a low monotonous45 humming like the buzzing of a bee-hive. The flap of the tepee-lodge was closely drawn46, and the bit of fire before it had burned out to a heap of white-ashed embers.
"They are safe as yet, thank God!" says Richard, heaving a most palpable sigh of relief. Then, with the fever in his veins47 to whip his natural ardor48 into hasty action: "'Twill be hours before Eph and the Catawba can come in by your upper ravine, Jack, and we shall never have a better chance than this. Hold you quiet here, whilst I—"
But I laid fast hold of him and would not hear to any such a foolhardy marring of Ephraim Yeates's plan.
"Heavens, boy! are you gone clean mad?" I would say. "'Twill be risky49 enough with midnight in our favor; with the camp well asleep, and that great fire burned down to give us something less than broad daylight to work in!"
He turned upon me like a pettish50 child. "Oh, to the devil with your stumbling-blocks, John Ireton! You are always for holding back. By heaven! I'll swear you have no drop of lover's blood in your veins!"
"So you have said before. But let that pass, we must bide51 by our promise to Yeates, which was not to interfere52 unless Margery stood in present peril53. Moreover, we should learn the lay of the land better while we have the firelight to help. When the time for action comes we must be able to make the play with our eyes shut, if need be. Come."
'Twas like pulling sound teeth to get him away, but he yielded at length and we crept on to have some better sight of the troop camp. We had it; had also a glimpse of the baronet-captain playing loo with his lieutenant54 and another. The tableau55 at the fire gave us better courage. The men had laid their arms aside and were sprawling56 at their ease; and while the arch scoundrel was in the gaming mood, Margery had less to fear from him.
I said as much to Dick, and for answer he pointed57 to the flask58 of usquebaugh which was at that moment making the round of the loo players.
"I know Frank Falconnet better than you do, Jack, for I have known him later. He is all kinds of a villain59 sober, but he is a fiend incarnate60 with the liquor in him. 'Tis lucky we are here. If he do but drink deep enough, Margery is like to have need—"
He nodded, and we backed away to make another circuit which fetched us out on the up-valley side of the encampment. Here we could look down into a smaller glade63 or bottom meadow on the stream where the horses of the band were cropping the lush grass. It was the sight of these, and of Margery's black mare64 among them, that set me thinking of a pickeering venture to the full as harebrained as that from which I had but now dissuaded65 Richard Jennifer.
"We shall need another mount, and Mistress Margery's saddle," I said. "Lie you close here whilst I play the horse-thief on these reavers."
But my dear lad was rash only for himself. "Now who is daft?" he retorted. "The Catawba himself could never run that gantlet and come through alive."
"Mayhap," I admitted. "But yet—"
He cut me off in the midst, winding18 an arm about my head by way of an extinguisher. One of the redcoat troopers lounging before the great fire had risen and was coming straight for our hiding place.
I saw not what to do; should have done nothing, I dare say, till the man had walked fair upon us. But Richard was quicker witted.
"Give me your sword!" he muttered; "mine will be too long to shorten upon," and when the Englishman's next stride would have kicked us out of hiding, Dick rose up before him like the devil in a play, gripped him by the collar and laid his sword's point at his throat.
"Follow me, step for step, or you are a dead man!" he commanded; and so, pacing backward, he led the fellow, with the hulking body of him for a shield and mask, out of the circle of firelight and into the safer shadows of the forest.
When I had made a creeping detour66 to join him, he still had his man by the collar and was emphasizing the need for silence by sundry67 prickings with the Ferara.
"Say, quick! what to do with him, Jack?" he demanded, when I came up; and now my slower wit came into play.
"Out of this to some safer dressing-room, and I'll show you," said I; and forthwith we marched our prize up the valley a long musket-shot or more.
When the soldier had leave to speak he begged right lustily for his life, as you would guess; but we gave him a short shrift. If the plan I had in mind should have a fighting chance for success it must be set in train before this trooper should be missed.
So, having first gagged the poor devil with his own neckerchief, we stripped him quickly; and I as quickly donned the borrowed uniform and became, at least in outward semblance68, a light-horse trooper of that king whose service I had once forsworn. The items of small-clothes, waistcoat and head-gear fitted me passing well, but when it came to the boots we stuck fast, and I was forced to wear my own foot-coverings.
The change made,—and you may believe no play-house actor of them all ever doffed69 or donned a costume quicker,—we bound our luckless captive hand and foot, pinned him face downward in the sward, and so leaving him with only his boots for a memento,—happily for him the night was no more than goose-flesh cool,—we raced back to our peeping-place on the skirting of the camp ground.
Here Dick wrung70 my hand, calling himself all the knaves71 unspeakable for letting me take a risk which he was pleased to call his own; and with that I stepped out into the firelight and was fair afoot in the enemy's camp.
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1
akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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crevice
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| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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upheaval
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| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
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cleft
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| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
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debris
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| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
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landslides
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| 山崩( landslide的名词复数 )； （山坡、悬崖等的）崩塌； 滑坡； （竞选中）一方选票占压倒性多数 | |
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10
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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rift
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| n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入 | |
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cavalcade
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| n.车队等的行列 | |
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crooks
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| n.骗子( crook的名词复数 )；罪犯；弯曲部分；（牧羊人或主教用的）弯拐杖v.弯成钩形( crook的第三人称单数 ) | |
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outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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windings
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| （道路、河流等）蜿蜒的，弯曲的( winding的名词复数 )； 缠绕( wind的现在分词 )； 卷绕； 转动（把手） | |
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crooking
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| n.弯曲（木材等的缺陷）v.弯成钩形( crook的现在分词 ) | |
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sentries
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| 哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 ) | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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gritting
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| v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的现在分词 )；咬紧牙关 | |
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loath
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| adj.不愿意的；勉强的 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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rabble
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| n.乌合之众，暴民；下等人 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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33
pitfalls
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| （捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误 | |
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covert
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| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
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smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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36
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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kennel
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| n.狗舍，狗窝 | |
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hindrance
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| n.妨碍，障碍 | |
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basking
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| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
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42
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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43
lodges
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| v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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44
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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45
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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46
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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47
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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48
ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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49
risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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pettish
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| adj.易怒的，使性子的 | |
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51
bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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52
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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53
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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54
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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55
tableau
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| n.画面，活人画（舞台上活人扮的静态画面） | |
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sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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58
flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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59
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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60
incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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61
rascals
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| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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63
glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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dissuaded
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| 劝（某人）勿做某事，劝阻( dissuade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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detour
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| n.绕行的路，迂回路；v.迂回，绕道 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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68
semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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doffed
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| v.脱去，（尤指）脱帽( doff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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knaves
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| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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